On December 17, 2025, the Staff of the Division of Trading and Markets (the “Division”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a Statement explaining its views on the application of paragraph (b)(1) of SEC Rule 15c3-3 to broker-dealers seeking to establish custody of crypto asset securities. Rule 15c3‑3, commonly called the Customer Protection Rule, requires broker-dealers to maintain physical possession or control of all fully paid and excess margin securities held for customers. Historically,…
Australia’s long awaited draft legislation for digital assets and tokenised custody platforms was released on 25 September 2025. The proposed changes extend the current financial services regulatory regime to operators of Digital Asset Platforms (DAPs) and Tokenised Custody Platform (TCPs) in a tailored manner and impose new requirements on DAP and TCP operators. Notably, entities providing specified services in relation to DAPs or TCPs will be required to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). …
On August 16, 2024, a federal district court judge in Florida denied in large part the motion to dismiss brought by basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal in the case in which he was sued for his role in Astrals Project, concerning NFTs. An NFT (non-fungible token) can be thought of as a unique cryptographic key contained within a digital token on the blockchain that verifies the corresponding content file as genuine. It is most often used…
In 2021, Illusory Systems, Inc. developed a cross-chain bridge known as the Nomad Bridge. A “bridge” is a protocol that allows multiple blockchain networks to interact with each other and for users to swap one token for another without having to trade in and out of tokens on an exchange and incur multiple trading fees. While operational, the Nomad Bridge moved more than $912 million worth of crypto assets on behalf of more than 21,000…
In November 2023, the German Parliament adopted the Act on Financing of the Future (Zukunftsfinanzierungsgesetz, “ZuFinG”), which will allow German stock corporations to issue stock “on chain” (crypto-shares). This is achieved by amending the existing German Act on Electronic Securities (“eWpG”) and the stock corporation law. However, a few requirements will need to be fulfilled. In particular, a change from a traditional paper-based issuance to crypto shares will require that all existing shareholders agree, which…
In 2022 and 2023, following the collapse of the key global players in the crypto industry, regulators around the world closely scrutinized crypto activities and tightened the regulations for digital asset businesses. This tightening primarily concerns the protection and segregation of customers’ assets, which has become standard practice since the crypto crash. Over the past year, we have witnessed a series of enforcement actions and attempts by offshore regulators to classify various types of digital…
We have previously written about the SEC’s case against LBRY, which offered a video sharing application. Its native token, LBC, was meant to be used by content creators and audience members on LBRY’s “content marketplace,” which billed itself as an alternative to YouTube. LBRY had a real business and real customers. But the SEC sued LBRY, claiming that it had conducted an unregistered offering of digital asset securities. LBRY tried to fight back aggressively, noting that…
Almost five years ago, we reported on the SEC’s first-ever case against celebrities for touting ICOs. In 2022, Kim Kardashian paid $1.26 million in connection with her touting on social media a crypto asset security (she received about $250,000 for a post on Instagram). On August 4, 2023, in the SEC’s most recent touting case, singer Austin Mahone consented to a judgment under which he paid about $46,000 for illegal touting. The simple concept behind…
The digital assets industry in Thailand has been growing significantly between 2021 and 2022, as more big players in the traditional financial industry and startup spaced enter the digital assets market. Despite the price volatility and regulatory complexities, the country has seen a rise in crypto-related activities. In this updated report – A Complete Guide to the Regulations on Cryptocurrency and Digital Token Offering in Thailand – the Baker McKenzie Thailand team provides an update of the…
On August 1, 2022 the US Securities and Exchange Commission brought a lawsuit alleging that Forsage was a fraudulent crypto scheme. According to the Complaint, Defendants Vladimir “Lado” Okhotnikov, Jane Doe a/k/a Lola Ferrari, Mikail “Mike” Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov (the founders of Forsage) created, operated and maintained an online pyramid and Ponzi scheme through Forsage.io (“Forsage”), a website that allowed millions of retail investors in the United States and elsewhere to enter into transactions…